The Internet Has Made Over Reported Stories Too Surreal

When I first thought of this blog post I was going to say that it made bad journalism too readily available, but it's always been something where there's been a surplus. Rather, there are so many sites reporting on every case, new information or not, with hastily written updates and copied and pasted "informative" pieces that I feel it's gone beyond the repetition and sensationalism of cable news into a New World of circularly linked "facts", alien "human" interest stories, and talking heads whose lack of credentials are painfully illuminated by the marvels of Web 2.0.

Case in point (or rather, the sole inspiration for this post, though I could easily touch on the Norway massacre): the Grand Threat Auto: Rapid Fire murders.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/07/live_coverage_police_report_mu.html

(check the latest update).

Long story short, black man with a history of violence who describes himself as a "tech building engineer" on his Facebook (haven't found it in my brief search, I don't know if Facebook is just immediately taking down anyone who is involved in a news story like this or if he's private/I missed him in my search) guns down a total of seven people in two different locations (both shootings involving a woman he was previously in a relationship with). He then engages in a high speed chase, takes an old baby boomer couple hostage, demands cigarettes and Gatorade in exchange for one of the hostages and finally ends the hysteria by shooting himself. Along the way he got in a couple of road rage incidents that resulted in no serious injury, with one victim in particular having been saved by his childhood Wolverine obsession:


http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/grand_rapids/Titanium-plate-saves-man-shot-in-nose

We're treated to the expect wave of sympathetic murmurings from public figures, incoherent and alternatively maudlin or vindictive babbling from public commentators, and writers slavishly devoted to dullness who try to make things like

"At one point during the chase, the suspect crossed a wide grassy median on the interstate and drove the wrong way down the highway with more than a dozen squad cars in pursuit. Hours later, the highway remained closed."

interesting.  It's supplemented nicely by pictures of people milling about because they heard Little League Games were cancelled

And stock educational articles like this one:

http://www.mlive.com..._rodrick_d.html

That would enrage anyone with a cursory knowledge of unusual crime gleamed from Dexter or Wikipedia. What makes this interesting to me is the "since he's black can we really call him a mass murderer?" spin it takes, and the fact that the community college professor level "expert" who was advised on the article not only indignantly defends himself in the comments but has a link to his Facebook:

http://www.facebook....stopher.kierkus

It all feels just too close, too mundane to me. It's become like watching the police show up in my neighbourhood after local kids who were trying to use a retractable dog collar to grapple up the side of a car but instead broke its window. Searching Mr. Dantzler on Facebook and finding a dozen groups like Rodrick Dantzler Youu A Stupid Mutha Fuckaa makes virtual rubbernecking feel so uninteresting. It's more fuel for my increasing ambivalence to our connectedness.